KL Rahul claims unwanted IPL all-time record on 29th birthday; here is how

The Punjab Kings on Sunday lost their 2nd consecutive match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 against the Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede Stadium. This match was also played on the 29th KL Rahul birthday. Even after putting up a considerable score of 195, the Punjab Kings failed to defend the score and the Delhi Capitals won the match by 6 wickets in just 18.2 overs.

DC vs PBKS scorecard

KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal gave a solid start to the team with their 100-run partnership and at one point it looked like the Punjab Kings would cross 200 runs. However, after the wicket of both the openers, the middle order was ineffective to make an impact on the DC vs PBKS scorecard. It was Shahrukh Khan at the end who took the team across the 190 mark with his quick 15 runs from 5 balls. The Punjab Kings failed to display a dominant bowling performance with Shikhar Dhawan scoring 92 runs from 49 balls, which took the game away from them.

KL Rahul IPL 2021 unwanted record

KL Rahul scored 61 runs from 51 balls with a strike rate of 119.60 in the match. The KL Rahul birthday wouldn't see many celebrations on the field as this became a record for the lowest strike rate after facing 50 balls in the first innings since 2020. What's more notable is that KL Rahul has claimed the first 3 positions for this record where he had a strike rate of 121.15 against the Chennai Super Kings and a strike rate of 127.77 against the Rajasthan Royals in the 2020 season.

The KL Rahul IPL 2021 journey as a captain so far is marked by 2 early consecutive defeats. It seems as though KL Rahul is playing with a more cautious approach after his captaincy, which could also have to do with the fact that the Punjab Kings has always struggled to find a stable middle order. This was also evident from the DC vs PBKS scorecard.

Captaincy affecting KL Rahul?

In the years 2018 and 2019, KL Rahul played fearlessly, scoring 659 and 593 runs with a strike rate of 158.41 and 135.38 in the IPL. However, after taking over the captaincy for the Punjab Kings in 2020, even though he scored 670 runs, his strike rate dropped to 129.34. The match against the DC saw him claim the top spot for his infamous all-time IPL record with Shreyas Iyer in the 4th position.

The Shreyas Iyer injury to his shoulder during the ODI series against England had ruled him out of the current IPL. The Shreyas Iyer injury made the Delhi Capitals replace him with Anirudha Joshi.

Image Source: IPL Twitter